Blood and Tears
by White Lizard
Summary: A developing Gift pulls the heroine to the greater ambitions and she is drawn to evil.
1. Undesired Task

A/N: Just so there's no confusion I thought you might want to know this takes place long before Alanna and everyone. R/R, people! I'll love you if you do!  
  
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The moon was starting to set, a sign that the night was over and the morning coming. In a small town deep in the hills, only a few people were beginning to stir. In a few hours, it would be fully awake soon to be bustling with trade.  
  
At this time, the community was still tiny and a stranger was noticed in an instant. People knew everyone else and a villager couldn't walk from one house to another without stopping to talk to half a dozen others. It was growing steadily though, and in a few years the homely little community would be too big to know everyone. The town stood at two major roads, one led over the hills, straight into the desert, where the tribes of the Bazhir reigned without any regard to the Kingdom of Tortall. The other hugged the coastline to the north and south, and would lead the wanderer north to the capital of Corus.  
  
It was there that a newly dubbed knight and her squire were preparing to ride at that hour. The knight had been given specific instructions from the King himself, which was unusual in such a basic task. He had treated it like the sake of the world was in her hands.  
  
The young woman scoffed as she walked toward the stables. She had been one of the best squires before being sent into the Knight's Ordeal. She had come out like all others squinting at the people, tired but grateful to have survived. Two squires had died in there this year, one of them her friend. Is that why he had sent her on such a simple mission? Did the king think she would be too busy mourning her dead friend to do a real assignment properly?  
  
She thought about it. It couldn't be, squires were taught that casualties were a part of being a knight. She was sad about her friend's death but that didn't mean she couldn't fight. But an order from the king was not something one disobeyed lightly, and she would have to do what he told her. She sighed as she walked into the castle stables where her squire had prepared the horses.  
  
"Lady Mirian, the horses are ready." She thanked the boy quietly. Douglass was quiet and took orders. He came from one of the newest fiefs, Golden Lake. His father had saved the last king's life and was given some of the new lands that Tortall had gotten from the war with Tusaine. He was small for his age, but worked hard and would make a good squire for the next four years, until he would become a knight. It was her job to prepare him for the trials of knighthood. But how she was suppose to do that if the king wouldn't even give her a decent assignment!  
  
She mounted her stallion, Black Pearl. The horse had been given to her as a present from her wealthy father upon being knighted. She sighed as they rode out of the palace. He had never thought she would make it when he sent her away to Corus. It wasn't until the midwinter of her 18th birthday approached that he realized she would become one of the great warrior maidens.  
  
He, like a growing number of lords, had believed that women could never be real warriors. Those people believed that women should stay home and act like what they thought of as proper ladies. Most girls were sent to be trained to sew and dance. A diminishing number of fathers would allow their daughters to be trained as knights. Her father had been one of the majority and refused to let Mirian study as a knight until her mother had spoken to him. He had reluctantly allowed her to, still unsure, but his confidence in her ability to fight for Tortall grew with passing time.  
  
He never told her he was proud, it would be like admitting he was wrong, but the stallion was his way of telling her secretly.  
  
The city of Corus had yet to wake up as the knight and her squire slipped out of the southern gates and no one noticed their departure. No one save a beautiful mage, who, cloaked in the darkness of the night, watched them leave the capital.  
  
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The knight stopped and dismounted as they reached the sea. The squire, surprised, grumpily halted as well. The sun was high in the sky already but the unhappy pair hadn't spoken to each other all day. Mirian was afraid that if she did she would have to explain their journey to the squire. Douglass held respect for her, not only as an elder but also as one of the finest of the king's new knights. She couldn't explain to him she was sent on such an easy assignment. He would lose his respect for her. Sooner or later his curiosity would prompt him to ask her about the task.  
  
"We will rest here, then make it to the village of Nirewn at dusk." The squire dismounted but glared at the knight. He would have liked to know why they were going to a little village by the coast, but if Lady Mirian didn't want to tell him she wasn't required to. Didn't mean he couldn't ask.  
  
"Lady Mirian, if I may ask what is our task in Port Legana?" The question she had been dreading. She didn't have to tell him but felt an obligation to tell him. She couldn't drag him half way across the country without telling him anything. She didn't have to tell him that even she didn't know everything.  
  
"Well the king has given me very specific instructions," the knight began as she dug through her saddlebags for provisions, "He has instructed us to ride to the village to find a young woman. Her name is Gwenivere. She is thirteen and of great importance. I can't tell you anymore." The squire seemed impressed, thinking that it was secretive, not that Mirian herself didn't know. He accepted the food she gave him and they sat down to eat their small meal.  
  
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A/N: Hope y'all like this. It hasn't got much of a plot yet but I had fun writing it. R/R, please! Oh and thanks again to Jean for the name of the story. 


	2. The Storm

As the sunset, clouds moved quickly to the port of Legann from the ocean. The villagers, in a hurry to avoid the coming storm, quickly raced to their houses. Even the boys, young men really, ran to get inside. They, like the rest of the village, knew that in a few moments the barely visible clouds at the edge of the horizon would cover the sky. The storm that would come would destroy anyone would was dumb enough to be caught in the open. The rain would come down on the village but avoid the towns around them. And in a few hours, when the storm had done its work, it would return to the sea, against the winds.  
  
Already, the sky was darkening and thunder could be heard coming closer. The people of Legann were all indoors, waiting for the storm that would destroy the fields and harvest. It would destroy any living creature that ventured outside. All that is, except one.  
  
At the edge of the cliffs, looking out at the clouds, was a solitary figure. The girl was tall and skinny from too little food. Her long black hair blew in the wind that brought the storm. Although a passerby wouldn't see, her gray eyes were filled with hate and distress. Her poorly made dress flapped around her. The tears coming down her face mixed with the rain that had started. The people of the village talked behind her back, avoided her.  
  
It did not take long before the clouds had completely covered the sky and rain began to pour down in large torrents. The girl still stood on the edge of the cliff and as she raised her arms to the strong winds coming from the sea. The energy of the storm seemed to accumulate around her, drawing the worst of it to the cliff. When it seemed like the air would break with the energy, lighting filled the sky above the village. Curiously, the lighting seemed to come from the edge of the cliff and return to the sky unlike most storms.  
  
It had not taken seconds for the rain to soak through the girl's dress and her hair, both now hanging drably from her thin body. The storm now proceeded to soak through the village and forest surrounding it. The winds blew anything that wasn't solidly connected to the ground away, with the exception of the girl. She stood steadfast against the storm, which was raging all around her.  
  
Then, suddenly, as the storm seemed to reach its peak, the girl collapsed, falling into the rushing foam of the sea.  
  
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Sitting in the common room in Nirewn's local inn, Lady Mirian watched a storm gather in the south. An hour ago the sky had been cloudless, but the storm had moved in quickly, covering the southern area with wind and rain. Then suddenly as the storm come in it left. It was without a doubt the strangest storm that Mirian had every seen.  
  
"Happens every once in a while," The innkeeper's voice behind her, "People 'round here say that that the town's cursed but I've heard the truth from travelers, there's a girl in a village down there who's strange as you ever seen."  
  
"A girl caused this storm?" The knight's surprise came not that the storm wasn't natural but that a young girl caused it.  
  
"Not just that, the girl causes all sorts of problems wherever she goes, especially when she loses her temper. The village of Legann has had bad crops the last two years because of her."  
  
"Legann? The girl's name isn't Gwenivere by any chance?" The knight knew the answer before the innkeeper replied and returned to his work.  
  
Lady Mirian looked again to the south, where the weather had returned to normal, a blue sky stretching to the horizon. The task she had been giving was getting more interesting by the moment.  
  
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A/N: I finally updated, yay!  
  
Thank you to the wonderful people who reviewed:  
  
Lirael: You have more now, happy? So what maybe I'm wrong, but that'd okay least it doesn't mess up Alanna's story.  
  
Mike: Just wait.  
  
Goldentwilight: Thank you though!! I read your stuff and muy good. You're one of Jean's friends right?  
  
PsychoLioness13: No, although the last female knights do play a part. The story is mostly about Gwemivere, a mage (not giving away more)  
  
Jean: yay! Not much more to say.:-D 


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